1st Year Foreign Player Payscale

by Patrick Newman (Dec 22, 2013)

I get asked from time to time how much ball players make in Japan, particularly the foreign ones. With Kevin Youkilis becoming the latest bari bari Major Leaguer to venture to NPB, it seemed like a good time to publish this rough guideline.

This was part of a longer article, from my train commute ramblings,
that's unfinished and kind of outdated, so the salaries don't reflect
what's happened so far in the 2013-2014 offseason. That said, it's still
mostly accurate. "Mostly" is kind of a key word, because there is
always going to be some variance from team to team, and with injury
history and other factors. This is a basic framework.

Salary Range

Profile

Recent Examples

$3M

MLB All-Star Experience

Andruw Jones, Bryan LaHair, Vincent Padilla

$1M-3M

a couple of complete seasons as an MLB regular, maybe a few years in the past; elite Korean players